Fine Print: Warren DNA Test Did NOT Compare Against Real Native American DNA

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the results of a DNA test Monday to prove that she does indeed have Native American ancestry, which has not worked out as planned.

“To make up for the dearth of Native American DNA, Bustamente used samples from Mexico, Peru and Colombia to stand in for Native American,” the Boston Globe report said.

In other words, Warren’s DNA could be Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian or Native American, but the “scientist” behind the test simply assumed that if Warren possessed Mexican, Peruvian or Colombian DNA that she was indeed Native American. Needless to say, none of those three countries are America.

In order clear up this confusion, Warren released the results of a DNA test which show that that she is, at most 1/32nd Native American, and at least 1/1024th Native American, according to the Boston Globe. According to the article, somewhere between six and 10 generations ago, Warren has a Native American ancestor.

We did the math and found that in any scenario, Warren isstill not Native American enough to be considered American Indian by any tribe today.

According to The Globe, if Warren’s “great-great-great grandmother was Native American, that puts her at 1/32nd American Indian.” One must be at least 1/16 Native American to be considered American Indian by tribes in the United States today, meaning that she is only meets 50% of the requirement to be considered Native American.

For fun, we looked into Warren’s worst-case scenario – what if she is only 1/1024th Native American? In other words, what if Warren had a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great who was Native American?

Well, 1 divided by 1024 is .00097656, or .09%. That number divided by the 1/16th requirement (.0625 for my readers who are adept at mathematics) comes out to .015625, or only 1.5% of the requirement to be considered Native American today.

Bottom line: Warren is still not a Cherokee Indian.

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